APEX 2 is the latest generation of outdoor sports watch under COROS, which is specially designed for outdoor sports such as long-distance trail running. The design is both strong and light, and at the same time has rich functions and long-lasting battery life, which can bring an excellent outdoor sports experience.
COROS APEX 2 specs and features:
- 1.2″ sapphire screen and titanium bezel
- 45 hours-17 days battery life (GPS Mode/Regular Use)
- Connect with all 5 major satellite systems
- Scientific training management system
- Free global offline maps
- 50 meters water resistance
- $399 – Check latest price on Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries
01/ Design & Battery Life
The watch adopts a circular and simple design with smooth lines, and the appearance does not deliberately highlight the “outdoor” style, making it more versatile for everyday wear. The diameter of the dial is 43mm, and the bezel is made of titanium alloy, and its wear resistance has increased by 50% compared with the previous generation. The size of the touch screen is 1.2 inches, the surface is covered with sapphire lens, the Mohs hardness is 9, second only to diamond, and it is more scratch-resistant during daily use. On the right side are the screen backlight button, confirm button and return button. The fabric quick-release strap is black as a whole, with gray and red on both sides.
The brand logo and product name are engraved on the top of the back of the watch, and the waterproof level of 5ATM is marked on the bottom, indicating that the device has a waterproof performance of 50 meters. On the left is the words “BARO·GYROSCOPE·HEART RATE”, indicating that the watch is equipped with a barometric pressure sensor, a gyro sensor, and a heart rate sensor. The words “TITANIUM” and “SAPPHIRE” on both sides of the charging interface on the right correspond to the titanium alloy and sapphire materials used in the watch respectively. After all, this is a device that can cope with the complex outdoor environment of -20°C~50°C.
In the middle is a newly upgraded multi-sensor photoelectric system, and the cover is designed with a convex mirror. The LED light in the center can emit red and green light, which is used to send out light signals for monitoring daily heart rate and blood oxygen saturation. The four surrounding LED lights are green light signals for heart rate monitoring during exercise, and the remaining four circular holes are sensors for receiving light signals. At the same time, COROS APEX 2 supports HRV measurement. Through HRV data, you can understand the degree of physical fatigue, so as to adjust the training intensity and rest time.
There are air pressure and temperature sensor holes on the top of the watch. APEX 2 can provide air pressure, altitude, temperature and other data through air pressure and temperature sensors, and can view records up to 18 hours. When the air pressure drops by 4hPa within 3 hours, the watch will activate a storm warning reminder.
Through actual measurement, the weight of COROS APEX 2 is about 43.1g. The lightweight design has considerable advantages over similar products, further reducing the sense of presence in daily wear.
Use a power tester to perform a wired charging test on COROS APEX 2, and the charging power is about 0.77W. COROS APEX 2 has a battery life of up to 45 hours in full GPS mode and 30 hours in full constellation mode, which can easily cope with a 100-kilometer cross-country race. The battery life of daily use can last for 17 days, completely solving battery life anxiety. At the same time, it only takes 45 minutes to charge from 0% to 50%.
02/ Comfort & COROS APP
COROS APEX 2 does not feel heavy on the hand, the strap is soft and fits well, and feels skin-friendly. The nylon material is also more breathable, and the stepless fit adjustment can also adapt to wrists of various sizes.
When installing the COROS APP to add a bound watch, you can freely choose the position of the wrist and buttons. When worn on the right hand, the knob can be selected on the left side, and the screen can rotate 180° synchronously. The usage of the buttons is as follows: long press the confirmation button to unlock, turn the knob up and down to view statistical information (daily data), confirm the button to enter the sports menu, and long press the return button to enter the tool bag.
The first layer interface of the APP is divided into 4 columns, let’s talk about the first three columns first. The first column is “today’s data”. The calorie consumption of the activity is displayed on the top in large font, and the circle shows the proportion of the set goal. There are also exercise time, steps, heart rate, sleep, and HRV index below. Click the calendar icon in the upper right corner to view historical data. The green dot in the upper left corner indicates that the watch is connected to the phone, and clicking the watch icon will jump to the device management page.
The second column is the exercise data page, where you can view the daily exercise records. Click “Statistics” in the upper right corner to view the overall data by week/month/year.
The third column is the COROS EvoLab physical system interface. The lower part contains functions such as performance prediction, training combination, training schedule, route collection, muscle heat map and personal record. The EvoLab physical fitness system is a system independently developed by COROS, which can provide users with simple and intuitive training and exercise physiological data, help users manage exercise training, and promote the realization of personal exercise goals. The specific situation will be introduced in detail in the third part of this article.
The fourth column is the device management page, click the upper entry to enter more settings interface. The remaining power of the device is displayed on the top, and there are setting items such as search device, do not disturb time period, usage guide, plateau guard and so on.
In addition to settings, there are 9 functions at the bottom of the device management page: sports interface, menu management, firmware upgrade, my training, my plan, my route, watch face download, GPS ephemeris and message notification. Among them, it can be seen from the exercise type selection interface that COROS APEX 2 supports up to 7 categories and a total of 25 sports modes, which are visually distinguished by color and equipped with vivid icons.
The above content is also displayed in the same form on the watch. In order to cope with such rich sports modes, COROS APEX 2 supports five major satellite navigation systems. Including GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, GALILEO and QZSS, greatly increasing the number of available satellites. At the same time, the antenna performance is improved by 50%, and the watch will intelligently select the satellite with the best signal to connect to ensure the best signal status and more stable navigation. A powerful signal system allows APEX 2 to maintain excellent signals in cities with complex terrain, signal interference, and environmental interference, ensuring accurate trajectory recording and data accuracy.
In daily use, the screen display effect of COROS APEX 2 is clear enough under indoor lighting, and the reflective screen itself can perfectly display the screen content under sunlight. At night, you can light up the screen for a short time by simply pressing the backlight button. When necessary, you can also turn on the mode of raising the wrist to brighten the screen, and it will light up as you watch. Or turn on the night light mode directly to display the screen content in the form of the screen always on. Combining several display methods, it is very convenient to view information on a daily basis.
03/ COROS EvoLab & Training Hub
| COROS EvoLab
COROS EvoLab combines a watch with a personal fitness algorithm to help users evaluate training, estimate recovery time, and provide fitness analysis. This function is free and open to all COROS users, so that sports enthusiasts can pay attention to their physical fitness changes and provide more comprehensive sports performance analysis for road running. The EvoLab physical fitness system contains two types of data, which will be introduced in detail below.
1. Data suitable for road running:
• Sports Ability
Sports ability is a comprehensive evaluation of the user’s road running ability, combined with parameters such as heart rate, pace, and personal physiological information. EvoLab provides athletic performance data on a scale of 0-100. The higher the ability score, the higher the road running ability.
Based on the accurate assessment of sports ability, EvoLab can predict the user’s road running performance. The predicted performance is based on the user’s physical fitness model, and the actual performance may be affected by environmental or physiological health factors. Through the effective analysis of the predicted performance, combined with their own actual situation, it helps users to better improve their personal sports performance.
• Sports Performance
Sports performance is an evaluation of the current running status. The sports performance score of 80%-120% helps users understand their current status. The higher the percentage, the better the current sports status, and the continuous sports performance above 100% indicates that the user ability is being improved.
• Training Focus
EvoLab uses heart rate, pace and other sports data to reflect the main impact of each running training on the body’s exercise capacity. Evaluate according to the time ratio of different intensity intervals in the training to help users intuitively understand the purpose of this training.
2. Data applicable to all sports types:
• Load System
The core system of EvoLab is divided into three parts: adaptation to load, stimulus compliance and load fatigue. By quantifying training intensity, training time and fatigue, it helps users realize scientific periodic training arrangement and management.
The watch will display the training load on the body in real time during exercise. This number starts from 0 and will continue to increase as the training intensity and training duration change. On the historical data page, users can compare the difference between today’s training and past training on the body.
① Adapt to the load
Adaptive load is the average training load in the past 42 days. The body gradually adapts to the stimulation caused by training in a long period of time, and then obtains an improvement in exercise capacity. Therefore, the adaptive load represents the ability of the user to bear the training.
② Stimulus Load
Stimulation load is the average training load in the past 7 days, representing the stimulation level caused by training to the body in a short period of time. The larger the value, the greater the current pressure.
In daily training, this set of tools can play a big role. Because a good training does not mean that you can PB (Personal Best, refers to the personal best, the word is a common running term). Likewise, one bad session doesn’t necessarily mean that training has hit a bottleneck. EvoLab evaluates the user’s stimulus load (training load over the past 7 days) and adaptation load (training load over the past 6 weeks). The watch will also recommend a suitable load interval for 7 days based on the user’s training situation.
③ Load Fatigue
The difference between the adaptation load and the stimulation load is load fatigue. Although it will make the body feel tired, it will also make people stronger at the same time. COROS EvoLab will evaluate the user’s load fatigue and quantify it through a number of 0-100, divided into zones 1-5.
Different runners have different physical responses to the same load. The training volume of 100 kilometers a week may be very simple for the marathon god Kipchoge, but it is likely to become out of reach for many ordinary runners.
Load fatigue represents the impact of the user’s training in the last 7 days on the body. The larger the value, the greater the current fatigue. In different stages of training, maintaining the load fatigue at different levels can meet different training purposes.
• Training Load
Training load is a quantitative representation of training intensity and time, helping users understand training volume more intuitively. At the same time, it is also the data basis of the load system. For a certain training session, the greater the training load, the higher the training intensity or the longer the training time.
• 7-day Load Sum
The cumulative value of the training load in the past 7 days is an effective indicator for evaluating the training effort in the past 7 days. At the same time, EvoLab recommends an appropriate training total load range based on the physical fitness model, and maintains the total load within the range, which can help users effectively and steadily improve their exercise capacity.
• Distribution of training load intensity over 4 weeks
The proportion of training load generated by high, medium and low intensity training in the past 4 weeks is adjusted according to the personal training goal.
• Physical Recovery
Comprehensive consideration of personal fitness level, training load, training performance and remaining recovery time. Infer the current physical strength level, estimate the recovery time, and provide corresponding suggestions at different recovery stages.
• Training Effect
The training effect is divided into aerobic effect and anaerobic effect, with the lactic acid threshold as the dividing line, and the exercise effect of each exercise on the body’s aerobic and anaerobic capabilities. Display with scores, help users understand the real-time effect during training, and make adjustments according to the purpose. After training, according to the effect score, understand the effectiveness of each training.
| COROS Training Hub
Based on the COROS EvoLab algorithm, COROS Training Hub provides an excellent training management platform for users or coaches. Through the web page, you can quickly analyze your past and current data, interact with coaches, create training plans, join or manage a team, and the functions are also very powerful.
By visualizing data, COROS Training Hub helps users and coaches efficiently analyze their physical condition in the simplest and most direct way to ensure they are ready for the next challenge.
The dashboard displays personal training status in a concentrated manner, including training load, exercise capacity, exercise overview in the past 7 days, and training arrangements for the next 7 days. Data analysis focuses on personal physical fitness and training, displays more physical fitness-related data, meets the needs of physical fitness analysis, and provides auxiliary information for the formulation of training plans and event arrangements.
In the activity list, you can quickly browse the exercise records. Quickly find corresponding exercise records through data such as activity name, date, and exercise type.
In the schedule, users can understand the trend of training load and training volume through the plan management chart. Quickly learn about past sports training and future training plans. Arrange training schedules, add training combinations and training plans, and adjust existing training arrangements. Quickly develop training plans and training combinations. Upload exercise data recorded by other devices (such as Garmin sports watches).
In general, the two magic weapons of COROS EvoLab and Training Hub are the strongest technical support that COROS APEX 2 brings to users in terms of scientific training. With its outstanding performance, it has won the favor of a large number of sports fans all over the world.
Conclusion
In terms of configuration, COROS APEX 2 uses titanium bezel and sapphire screen to bring a more powerful body. The five major satellite systems are combined with excellent antenna performance to create a better navigation experience, and the battery life in GPS mode is as long as 45 hours. There are also bright features such as touch + photoelectric knob dual operation mode, 50-meter waterproof performance, and a new multi-sensor photoelectric system, which together bring excellent performance guarantee.
Functionally, COROS APEX 2 supports offline map navigation, track return, sleep quality monitoring, HRV index measurement, and plateau guard mode. Equipped with COROS EvoLab and COROS Training Hub scientific training management system. There are also practical tools such as bluetooth listening to music, Alipay offline scanning, incoming call and message reminders, alarm clock stopwatch, global time, sunrise and sunset times, and compass. The comprehensive user experience is excellent.
If you also need a sufficiently professional outdoor sports watch, the COROS APEX 2 with complete software and hardware is your best choice.
Check the COROS APEX 2 price:
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